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Merchandise Hierarchy in the age of Cloud

March 12, 2015 by Bhawna Mehan Leave a Comment

Merchandise Hierarchy in the age of Cloud

Traditionally in retail, merchandising refers to the selection of products a retailer has available for sale and how those products are displayed in-store. And with retailers aspiring to cater to the modern customer, merchandise hierarchy is an essential element in any modern enterprise retail management software.

Every retail organisation, regardless of its size, has a merchandise hierarchy for all the goods. A merchandise hierarchy is a reporting structure under which sales and inventories of products are tracked and managed. Essentially, categorisation of products is the primary function of the enterprise retail solution’s merchandise hierarchy. As common misconceptions go, it is NOT intended to describe a product or classify organisational, production or design elements.

And with retailers eying Cloud applications for management solutions, merchandise hierarchy is one of the services that can be powered to give even more freedom and agility for the store.

A retail merchandise hierarchy can have flexible or multiple levels, with the highest level providing an overall enterprise view. Then, subsequent hierarchies narrow down the family or class of the product. It provides a common language and consistent codes at each hierarchical level, and ensures that the retailer’s merchandise resides systematically in one place and is grouped based on similar form, format and purpose. And when that place is the Cloud, it lends agility and savings for the retailer.

With an effective, Cloud-based automated merchandise hierarchy in an Enterprise Class Retail management solution, users can:

Define multiple merchandise hierarchies in the system, and have it ‘trickle’ down to all the stores automatically
Attach more than one merchandise hierarchy to individual products
Top-down reporting at all merchandise hierarchy levels; thereby saving man-hours and leading to effective resource management
Hierarchical classification of products allows customisation of reports and evaluation, to address specific needs of retail businesses or the overall enterprise.

Advantage: Retailer

By incorporating automated merchandise hierarchy, a retailer benefits through better visibility and performance, understanding of customer demands, and more effective merchandise and sales planning. The main advantage of merchandise hierarchy is that it lend to well-calibrated sales forecasting. With careful planning and analytics, retailers can get to know which are fast-moving consumer goods, and avert ‘stock-outs’. Conversely, it also allows the retailer to know which are slow-moving goods, and reduce inventory to save time, space and money. With the top-down reporting, it becomes even easier for the retailer to get actionable insights.

Also, merchandise hierarchy, along with data insights, can reveal which item sells with what, so that the items can be ‘bundled’ to give greater value to the customers, while increasing the basket size for the retailer. In the end, it’s a win-win situation for both the customer and the retailer.

A retailer with well-structured merchandise classification has a complete view of products across multiple levels and is able to drill down and analyse data in a variety of ways suitable to their specific business requirements. And with Cloud agility, a retailer is not bound by any infrastructural hindrance of traditional IT set-ups as it lends a unified view of merchandise operations.

The benefits are also reflected in better integration with supply chain partners, and improved coordination between retail planning and production, which in turn leads to a reduction in production costs and inventory requirements.

With Merchandise Hierarchy, a retailer gets:

Deep insights into historical merchandise performance

Forecasted projection of future merchandise performance

With flexible or multiple merchandise hierarchy, a retailer can take advantage of seasonal sales, trends, festivals and the like.

Merchandise Hierarchy enables retailers to boost sales, increase margins and reduce inventory costs by improving performance and efficiency of their allocation, store-replenishment planning, and buying functions. iVend Retail on Cloud helps its clients achieve success through its integrated suite for merchandising hierarchy, assortment, store planning, and replenishment applications.

iVend’s integrated merchandise management also provides retailers with accurate information from purchase to payment. iVend Retail on Cloud from CitiXsys Inc, accomplishes everything that a flexible merchandise hierarchy system requires it to do and, as a true multichannel-ready Cloud application suite, addresses all retail touch-points such as front-end POS operations, inventory, merchandise hierarchy, customer loyalty, data and analytics, eCommerce/ mCommerce, and reports, in one suite of applications.

Filed Under: Blog, Merchandize Hierarchy Tagged With: Cloud, iVend Cloud, Merchandise Hierarchy, Retail Management Suite

CitiXsys February Newsletter 2015

February 27, 2015 by CitiXsys Communication Leave a Comment

Enhanced Retail Profitability with iVend POS

What’s Coming in iVend POS 6.4

Complete control and visibility over retail operations are a must for any retailer to stay competitive. iVend Retail has long been an invaluable enterprise-class retail management solution for retailers of all sizes. Now, with the iVend Cloud offering, this is much faster and easier to achieve without the cost and complexity of deploying an on-premise solution.

Retail in 2015, and Beyond

As always, technology would be a major contributor in reducing the gap between manufacturers and consumers. But the major trend is around the retailers’ acceptance of what has been launched previously. That, will be the face of retail technology in 2015.

Product Brochures

Upcoming Events

Recent Partnerships

Pioneer Solutions Ltd. – UK

A valued iVend Retail partner, Pioneer Solutions provides high-quality retail and IT support & services to businesses throughout the UK and Ireland. Pioneer Solutions has established a reputation for comprehensive consultancy on improvement of IT and retail infrastructure. It offers personalised support solutions specialising in retail and IT, and its clients comprise of leading retail brands, government-funded organisations, and professional service bodies

BCC-Services RDC – Congo

Based in France and the Congo, BCC Services offers expertise on SAP technologies and Retail Technology with iVend Retail including Business Intelligence and Enterprise Performance Management. BCC Services is a dynamic and forward-looking consulting firm and an iVend and SAP Partner. Specialised in the implementation of ERP, BCC Services provides Business Intelligence and Enterprise Performance Management around SAP’s product offerings as a partner of iVend Retail.

Recent Customer Wins

Fine Wine Delivery Company

Fine Wine Delivery Co is New Zealand’s largest single-site wine retailer, occupying 2,500 sq m of temperature-controlled Super Store at Mt Wellington. Growing from a home-based location in Torbay, the enterprise is one of the best examples of 100% family-owned business. With flourishing commerce, they needed a multichannel capable retail solution like iVend Retail. Partnering with Realtech Limited, iVend Retail addressed each of their store operational requirements with its inventory management, merchandise management, transaction management and reporting capabilities.

Wenna, Inc

Founded in New York City in September 2013, Wenna Inc. is a small-sized corporation operating mainly in jewelry retail. They specialize in silver and gold jewelry and have brands like ANNA Inspiring Jewelry and ANNA Haute Jewelry. Their customer base was expanding and so were the operational requirements, so they turned to iVend Retail for assistance. With the dependability and multifunctional nature of iVend POS, Wenna discovered efficient and profitable retailing. Partnering with Support One, Inc., iVend Retail met Wenna’s each and every retail requirement for now and ahead.

©2015 Citixsys. All Rights Reserved. All other product names are trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Filed Under: News @ CitiXsys Tagged With: CitiXsys, February Newsletter, iVend POS 6.4, Newsletter

Retail in 2015, and Beyond

February 26, 2015 by Bhawna Mehan Leave a Comment

Retail in 2015, and Beyond

As always, technology would be a major contributor in reducing the gap between manufacturers and consumers. But the major trend is around the retailers’ acceptance of what has been launched previously. That, will be the face of retail technology in 2015. Whether it is contact-less payment options, chip-card standardization, or virtual stores, the consumer will be engaging with the retailer like never before.

The usage of smartphones has opened the doors to newer ways to transact through embedded technology, NFC devices (Near Field Communications) etc., which can be used in contact-less payment systems like Google Wallet and now, Apple Pay. Also, online transactions, virtual payments have gained edge as popularity of non-cash payments has grown as people make the shift towards cashless digital transactions.

By 2020, customers will certainly be using their smartphones and mobile devices to pay for a wide range of goods and services in this way. When the consumer has embraced the mobile (and how!), it would be retrograde for the retailer not to do the same. From contact-less payment acceptance, to beacons to the mass-acceptance of the Mobile POS, it has become imperative for the retailer to reach out to the customer via the mobile.

In an extension of the retailer using mobile technology as a bridge to reach out to the customer, beacons will play an instrumental role. Simply put, this enables the retailer to literally ‘guide’ the customer around the store, down the aisles, right up to the product, all using a Cloud based retail management system. And ping him with a discount coupon on the way, along with an upsell item of interest (which would be gleaned from his historical purchase data!).

Secondly, this year will also see retail integrations in a big way. Gone are the days when retailers picked the best individual application for merchandise hierarchy, a separate one for inventory management, and yet another one for transactions at the point of sale . The flip side was, despite doing their jobs well, these units failed to serve the company as a single integrated unit as all the processes churned out data in siloes.

The need, therefore is of an application that integrates all retail processes into one , a single all-inclusive ‘suite’ of retail management applications, which would be on virtual servers (and therefore, reducing the IT spend of the retailer). And the answer to it all is the Cloud. This technology can reduce a retailer’s IT spend to a fraction, quadruples the dependability and provides fail-safe operations like nothing else. Plus, hybrid Cloud systems provide greater control over retail operations, while keeping costs low.

2015 will also be the year when customers will want loyalty to be an integral part of the retailer. He or she should be able to check his loyalty point balance on the move from his tablet or phone, and the retailer should have provided a loyalty portal to indulge the former.

Conversely, the POS operator should also be able to access a customer’s historical purchase data, loyalty points and make a smart upsell without hassles. A customer having a loyalty account with a retailer provides a very valuable mode of communication, where he or she allows the retailers to contact the person with early-bird offers and value-additions. Either way, having a loyalty system as a component of your Integrated Business Management multichannel retail setup will make this part of customer retention more efficient and less labor-intensive.

Over the years, we have seen more and more physical retail businesses opening e-stores. This means they need well-designed e-commerce systems, new methods of merchant credit card processing, and better visual marketing. Security is also a major concern for many businesses with an electronic footprint. A Cloud-based Retail management suite can seamlessly integrate with your Retail application, managing your retail chain as well as your vendor platform over the Internet.

With such uninhibited influx of technology and data from distinct sources, what a retailer needs is an Integrated Retail Management Solution with a robust back-end enterprise which can work in tandem. This would have the capability to can ease the challenges in retail processes, along with providing clear visibility through the entire supply chain. To maintain the customer service provided in the retail market, it is an imperative to adopt retail management solution that easily runs simultaneous operations.

Essentially, what a retailer needs is a one-stop solution for his retail management needs, which is Cloud-capable and which can integrate all retail functions into a seamless whole. Available on terminal and mobile devices, iVend Cloud-based retail management suite’s multi-store, multi-user, e-commerce, loyalty-ready abilities empower retailers to engage with consumers on an entirely new level. With iVend Retail on Cloud, enterprise retailers can look beyond disparate software solutions and achieve optimum profitability.

Know more about iVend Cloud on https://citixsys.com/ivend-cloud/ or write to us on [email protected]

Filed Under: iVend Retail Tagged With: Cloud, iVend Cloud, iVend Retail, Retail, Retail in 2015

Integrated Retail – The Multichannel Way

February 20, 2015 by Hritvick Sen Leave a Comment

Integrated Retail-The Multichannel way

Acquire. Retain. Engage. These are the three words that any retailer knows as the Holy Grail. A seamless, multichannel approach that acts upon these three tenets is what any retailer needs to consolidate his customer base. And that calls for a cloud-based retail system that works as a suite of integrated applications, rather than a patchwork quilt of disparate solutions.

A retailer in today’s world is beset with technologies aiding the customer in making smarter buying decisions, and advancements in retailing in reaching out to the customer. Engaging these diverse elements to bring value to the customer, creating a value-based image in his mind and keeping it all profitable… that is the perfect median that a retailer should be aiming to achieve.

What a new-age retailer needs is an end-to-end, multi-channel retail management suite of solutions that incorporates all processes from POS to Store Back Office to Head Office operations. The need for agility asks for the new-age retail management software suites where on-premise systems co-exist with the virtual world of Cloud, which can either be Private or Public Cloud systems. Retailers also prefer versatility in the fact that their retail operations be a ‘hybrid’ of on-premise and Cloud technology.

Integrated retail management applications contribute a lot in increasing process efficiencies. Integrated applications help business owners to get a good idea of what’s going on by offering a bird’s eye view of daily and long-term operations. And it is because of these integrated applications that retailers today are able to effectively manage their different channels of sales. The applications today are sophisticated and advanced to seamlessly integrate eCommerce, brick & mortar and other sales channels into one holistic application set, which in the context of retail, is called Multi Channel Retail.

A true multichannel ready Cloud solution would address all retail touch-points such as front-end POS operations, inventory, merchandise hierarchy, customer loyalty, data and analytics, eCommerce/ mCommerce, and reports, in one suite of applications. This is essential in ensuring the smooth, daily function of any retailer, whether it is Enterprise-Class or an SME.

With Enterprise Mobility becoming a buzz-word, a retailer can use a Cloud-based retail solution on tablets and phones to bring the POS to the customer, flipping the traditional model. With wireless connection to the Cloud Enterprise Server, a store employee can assist a customer from selection to the billing process. What’s more, a loyalty integration will also enable the employee to either credit the transaction to the customer’s loyalty account, or redeem the ‘points’ in favor of the current transaction.

Using an integrated retail system, which converges data of all multichannel retail touch points and is able to do so in multiple languages with multi-currency facets, is vastly important for the success of any retailer.

With a Cloud-based Retail Suite, centrally-controlled automatic over-the-air updates become the word in retail operations. One click from the head-office should be all that it takes every store to update its software to the latest version. The result: No manning required for running software updates!

Facilitating smooth operations of a Retail chain is an important concern of a multichannel retail company, which is ensured by an integrated retail management solution. Each branch (if spread over nations and boundaries) must consist of its own locally-based currency and language system, in order to best service the department, and customers. Reports can then be sent back to the head office, detailing information regarding sales and other allied functions. Therefore, a retail solution today must also have multi-lingual, multi-currency functionalities that empower a retail taskforce to instantly set up a retail store at any location, and not worry about IT hassles.

Available on terminal and mobile devices, iVend Cloud-based retail management suite’s multi-store, multi-user, e-commerce, loyalty-ready abilities empower retailers to engage with consumers on an entirely new level. With iVend Retail on Cloud, enterprise retailers can look beyond disparate software solutions and achieve profitability.

For a retailer, it is easy as anything to run promotions with a multi-channel ready cloud-based retail management suite. The management team can just run it from the Head Office server, and it will automatically ‘stream’ down to each store and POS, as well as the online version, too. Engaging customers was never so seamless.

With reduced dependency on infrastructure and more stress on performance and functionality, iVend Retail on Cloud empowers the Enterprise Retailer like never imagined. Thousands of stores in over 45 countries are running iVend Retail from CitiXsys Technologies, realizing their true efficiency and profitability.

These are but a few of the changes that a retailer will experience on first-hand basis with CitiXsys’ live demos of iVend Retail on Cloud. Meet our Team at RBTE-2015 at Stand-534 to see How iVend powers retail businesses.

Filed Under: Multi channel retail Tagged With: integrated Retail, iVend Retail, Mobile POS, Multichannel Way, Terminal POS

What’s Coming in iVend POS 6.4

February 17, 2015 by Pankaj Mathur Leave a Comment

iVend Cloud

Complete control and visibility over retail operations are a must for any retailer to stay competitive. iVend Retail has long been an invaluable enterprise class retail management solution for retailers of all sizes. Now, with the iVend Cloud offering, this is much faster and easier to achieve without the cost and complexity of deploying an on-premise solution. With the iVend Cloud you can be sure of access to the most up-to-date functionality without having to use your in-house IT resources to maintain the solution.

Because the software is delivered as a service, there’s no lengthy rollout, no requirement for time-consuming IT training, and no need for ongoing maintenance. You can get up and running quickly and with minimal disruptions. Also, your IT staff is freed up to focus on other tasks. By accessing iVend in the Cloud you can focus on your business, not your technology. Because you don’t need to invest in hardware infrastructure or experienced IT experts to manage and support the solution, the total cost of ownership is kept to a minimum. Costs are affordable, easy to understand, transparent, and predictable. In addition, by accessing the solution on the cloud, you can deploy the software quickly across your entire organization. This means you accelerate time to value and quickly start to see a return on your investment.

Multiple iVend Enterprise on single Machine

With iVend 6.4 multiple instances of iVend Enterprise can be deployed on a single machine.

Deployments with integration to SAP Business One can now have multiple iVend Enterprises integrated to different SAP Business One companies on a single physical machine.

This will also allow multiple deployments of iVend Unplugged or a combination of Unplugged and SAP Business One integrated iVend Enterprises on a single machine.

Tender Based Discounts and Surcharges

Tender based discounts and surcharges allow the user to offer additional discounts or apply additional surcharges based on the tender that is used at POS for paying the transaction.

Discounts and surcharges can be setup separately for the following payment methods:

Cash
Credit Card
Debit Card
Check
EBT
Custom Tender in Local Currency

Tender based discounts and surcharges can be setup for a date range and can also have a maximum threshold limit.

iVend Scheduler

The scheduler functionality in iVend 6.4 will enable the user to schedule the following activities:

Automated delivery of reports to a list of users at defined intervals via email.
Deliver output of a predefined database query to a list of users at defined intervals via email or SMS.
Send email communication to a list of customers / users segmented based on a predefined database query.

iVend 6.4 will support the following SMS Gateways for outbound SMS communication.

Nexmo
SMS Global
Click Send
ClikaTell

Act on Demand

The On Demand feature in iVend 6.4 allows the user to interact with the iVend system via SMS.

This feature will enable the user to request a report or output of a database query on demand by sending a SMS to a long / short code provided by the SMS Gateway.

The SMS Gateway integration in iVend intercepts the incoming SMS message and sends out the desired report / query output to the user via email.

iVend 6.4 will support the following SMS Gateways for the On Demand feature.

Nexmo
SMS Global
ClickSend

Sales/Item Attributes

iVend 6.4 allows user to create unlimited number of attributes that can be attached to a transaction or an item level. Using these attributes cashier can capture additional information from the customers while performing the transaction at POS.

Attributes can also be setup based on transaction types. Therefore based on the current transaction type being performed different information can be captured on the POS.

A regular expression can also be specified while defining these attributes. This allows validating the user input while capturing the details for these attributes on POS.

iVend Loyalty

With iVend 6.4 the loyalty module has been merged into the core iVend application and is no longer a separate application. With this the user experience is more uniform and application maintenance is low.

The loyalty module can be configured from the iVend Management Console.

SMS notification to customers for point updates has additionally been added to the Loyalty module.

Reason Codes

Support for capturing the reason codes has been extended to all Management Console transactions

Reason codes can also be captured for Suspended Transactions on the POS.

Existing reports are updated in iVend to display the captured reason codes.

Sale Refund

Sale Refund functionality has been enhanced in iVend 6.4. Users can now define Return days for individual products. Based on this setting the POS user can only refund products that fall within the return days time period from the date of sale.

Return surcharges can also be attached to individual products that will automatically add to the Sale Refund transaction

Sale Refund beyond the refund days or removing of refund surcharges can be approved by using the Manager Override functionality.

Scan Area

A new set of settings have been added to the Retail Profile in iVend 6.4 to control scanning of codes from the Scan Area.

These settings restrict / allow the user to scan the following codes from the scan area:

Product / Gift Card related information including Code, Barcode, Description, etc.
Customer related information including code, first name, last name, etc.
Sales person related information
Transaction Id
Loyalty related information

Account Receivable

Account Receivable management for customers has been included in iVend 6.4 for Unplugged deployments. Based on the credit limit and the current AR balance of the customer, system can block the customer from purchasing goods using the On Account payment type.

Moving Average Item Cost

Moving Average inventory valuation method has been introduced in iVend 6.4 for unplugged deployments. The system automatically updates the Item Cost for all inbound inventory movements and records the Item cost against outbound inventory transactions.

Surcharges on Goods Receipt PO

Surcharges can now be applied to Goods Receipt PO document in iVend.

For Unplugged deployments users can also select the surcharges that should be loaded on Item Cost.

Matrix Item View

New views for Matrix Items have been added in iVend 6.4.

Management Console users can now view child items and their inventories across stores / warehouses within a single screen.

POS users can filter matrix items by attributes / attribute values and select / add multiple child items to the transaction from a single screen.

Data Import / Export for Matrix Items

Data Import and Export functionality in iVend will now support exporting and importing of Matrix Items. The data import functionality supports creation / updating of Parent / Child items based on the data definition in the import excel template.

iVend Report Designer

iVend 6.4 includes an in-built report designer. This will allow users to create new reports or customize existing reports without requiring any third party reporting tool.

Reports created with the iVend Report Designer can be scheduled for automated delivery at defined intervals via email and can also be viewed in any standard browser using the iVend Web Report viewer component.

Report Enhancements

Following enhancements has been incorporated in iVend reports:

Filter criteria for reports now support date range such as Last Week, Last Month, etc.
Delivery report can be filtered based on fulfillment plan.

Dashboard Widgets – Auto Refresh Interval

The Dashboard functionality has been enhanced in iVend 6.4. Users will now have the facility to define a refresh interval for each dashboard widget and based on the defined interval the dashboards will auto-refresh the widget data.

New Dashboards

iVend 6.4 includes the following 2 dashboards out of the box:

Store Manager View
- Total Sales for the Day
- POS sale transaction value / volume
- Till Tipple Point Status
- Open Stock Transfer Requests
- Open Purchase Orders

Loss Prevention
- Suspended Sales
- Item Scanning Exceptions
- Voided Sales
- Cash Drawer Manual Operation

Product Dashboard

With iVend 6.4 the dashboard functionality has been extended to the product screen. Users can click the Dashboard icon on the product screen to view the current product statistics.

Customer Dashboard

With iVend 6.4 the dashboard functionality has been extended to the customer screen. Users can click the Dashboard icon on the customer screen to view the current customer statistics.

Goods Return

Following enhancements have been incorporated in iVend for Goods Return:

A new setting has been provided in iVend 6.4 to restrict / allow the user from adding new product rows in the Goods Return document if the document is based on a Good Receipt Purchase Order.
A new validation has been incorporated to restrict the user from modifying the item price if the item being returned is based on a Goods Receipt Purchase Order document.
In previous versions of iVend, a Goods Return based on a Goods Receipt Purchase Order would integrate to SAP Business One as a baseless Goods Return document. With iVend 6.4 the Goods Return in SAP Business One will be based on the corresponding Goods Receipt Purchase Order.

Globalized On-Screen Keyboard

The onscreen keyboard on iVend POS has been replaced with a new multi-language keyboard in iVend 6.4. The new keyboard can be configured to allow the user to switch the keyboard language at run-time enabling data entry in multiple languages.

Suggested Printing of Labels after Price Change

Whenever store pricelists are updated the store users are required to reprint the item labels.

This functionality eases the re-printing of labels by suggesting a list of products for which the prices have changed since the last label printing.

Label printing is further enhanced to print labels based on In Stock quantity of an item.

Button Panel Enhancements

Several enhancements have been incorporated in quick button panel functionality. With iVend 6.4, users will be able to define the size of the button panel. The button panel can be configured to occupy up to 60 percent of the transaction screen. Moreover the number of button that would appear on the button panel can also be specified. This gives more control to the user as the user can now resize the buttons on the button panel according to their needs.

User can additionally configure the button panel to display the available quantity and item price. The Font colour on the buttons can as well be configured.

Transaction Screen on POS

A new set of settings has been added to the Retail Profile in iVend 6.4 to show / hide columns in the main transaction screen on the POS.

Customer Facing Display on POS

A new set of settings has been added to the Retail Profile in iVend 6.4 to configure the customer display. These settings control the following aspects of the customer display:

Show / Hide columns on Customer Display
Adjust Row height
Adjust Font Size
Show / Hide payment detail information
Show / Hide transaction receipt view

New Skin

The default skin for Management Console and POS has been replaced with a new Metro style skin. This gives a fresh look to the user interface.

Management Console Menu

The Management Console menus and menu items have been restructured in iVend 6.4 under the following 3 categories:

Administration

Operations

Reports

A search function has also been added to the Menu structure to quickly search for the required menu item. This makes navigation easy.

Replication and Integration Monitors

With iVend 6.4, Replication and Integration monitors have been moved within the iVend Management Console. This will allow users to monitor the integration and replication queues from any machine running the management console application.

POS based Support for Payment Gateway

With iVend 6.4, Payment Gateway configuration can now be attached at the POS level.

Tax Condition Setup

The Tax Condition Setup has been enhanced in iVend 6.4 to include up to 3 attribute / attribute values and 3 UDF values per definition.

Multi-Language Item Description

With iVend 6.4, users will be able to define alternate product description in different languages. Based on the language attached to the POS user:

The products can be searched on the alternate product description defined for that language.
The product search results will display the product description for that language
The main transaction screen will display the product description for that language
The alternate product description can be printed on transaction receipt.

Coupon Enhancements

The coupons functionality has been enhanced in iVend 6.4. Coupons can now be issued automatically to the customer based on the transaction total by configuring them under promotions. The coupon value can be a fixed amount or a percentage of the transaction total.

e-Receipts

With iVend 6.4, the transaction receipt can be emailed to the customer. This functionality requires the user to develop a transaction receipt template using the iVend Report Designer. The transaction receipt template is attached to the retail profile.

Datacap Pin Pad Enhancements

Pin pad integration with UIC 795 has been enhanced to support swiping of gift cards on the terminal. This removes the need of having a separate MSR for swiping the gift cards in case user is already using the UIC 795 for swiping the credit cards.

Signature captured on UIC 795 is also integrated with iVend.

System Information

On completion of the End of Day procedure at stores the application will automatically collect system parameters such as Database Size, Free Disk Space, Top Tables by Database Space, Last Database Backup, Last Database Consistency Check, etc and replicate this to the iVend Enterprise for remote monitoring. This information can be accessed by executing a system query – Store Server Performance Report from the iVend Query Manager.

SAP Business One 9.1 Integration

iVend 6.4 will support integration to SAP Business One 9.1.

The integration has been extended to Branch Management in SAP Business One 9.1.

Stock Transfer Document Cancellation

With iVend 6.4, users will be able to cancel Stock Transfer Documents created from SAP Business One and Stock Transfer Documents created from iVend store for the general warehouse.

Restrict Duplicate Barcode on Product

A new setting has been provided in iVend 6.4 to restrict the user from defining the same barcode on more than one product. This setting is turned off by default.

Scan to define Product Barcode on Product Card

With iVend 6.4, scanning a product barcode on the product card screen would populate the barcode into the UPC Code field. This avoids manual entry of UPC Code on the product card.

End of Day Process

A new setting has been provided in iVend 6.4 to restrict the user from setting a past date as the next business date.

Customer Code on Transfer Order

Customer code field has been added to the Stock Transfer document keeping this in line with the SAP Business One stock transfer document.

Comments on Goods Receipt PO

While creating a Goods Receipt PO based on a Purchase Order, the comments on the Purchase Order document are automatically copied to the Good Receipt PO document.

Historical Transaction Import

The Data Import functionality in iVend will now support importing of historical sales transactions. This functionality is specially useful when migrating from a legacy system to iVend Retail. This will allow the POS users to perform sale refunds based on the imported historical transactions. The sale transaction reports will also consider the imported transactions. Historical transactions can only be imported before the first transaction is performed on the POS.

Product Import

The Data Import functionality in iVend has been enhanced for product imports. The product import template can now include multiple comma-separated values for Alternate UPC Codes and Product Attributes. The import template can also include Item Cost.

Collect Rounded Amount as Donation

A new setting has been provided in iVend to round the transaction total to the next dollar and collect the rounded amount as donation.

Import Purchase Order items

Import functionality has been provided on the purchase order screen to import purchase order items from a text file. The import text file can include product code, quantity, price and tax code.

End of Day Procedure for Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the End of Day procedure has been extended to Mobile POS.

Mobile POS – New Hardware Support

Following new hardware are now supported by the iVend Mobile POS:

Epson – M244A WIFI Receipt Printer
Cash Drawer via Epson – M244A Printer
Koamtac KDC 400 Sleeve with barcode scanner and MSR for iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S5
Ingenico iSMP Payment Terminal (for Australia)
Motorola TC55 – Touch Mobile Computer for Android Mobile POS

Quotation Transaction from Mobile POS

Quotation transaction type has been added to the iVend Mobile POS. A quotation created on the Mobile POS can be converted to Sales Order or Sale on the Mobile POS.

Sales Order Fulfillment from Mobile POS

A sales order booked in iVend via the Mobile POS or Terminal POS can be fulfilled via the Mobile POS. A new screen in the Management Console allows the user to create customer fulfillment packages and assign them to Mobile POS for fulfillment. The Mobile POS user can lookup delivery packages on Mobile POS along with their customer location on Google / Apple Maps. Pending payments against fulfillment can also be collected from the Mobile POS.

Item and Sale Attributes on Mobile POS

The Mobile POS application has been enhanced to record Item and Sale attributes while performing a transaction. Regular Expressions defined for Item and Sale attributes are also supported on Mobile POS

UDF Support for Customer Card on Mobile POS

The Mobile POS application has been enhanced to support UDFs on customer master. While creating / updating a customer on the Mobile POS, the user can record values in the customer master UDFs. Regular Expressions defined on UDFs are also supported on Mobile POS.

New Payment Types on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS will additionally support the following payments types:

Foreign Currency
Customer Tender

Gift Card Transaction on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS will support the following Gift Card transactions:

Gift Card sale
Gift Card re-charge
Gift Card cash back

Coupon Enhancements on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, users can issues coupons to customers from Mobile POS that can be printed on receipt and / or can be emailed to the customer.

Loyalty Customer Registration on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS application has been enhanced to support registration of loyalty customers.

Catalogue View on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS application will include a catalogue view for product selection.

Touch ID support for IOS Devices

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS application has been enhanced to support Login using Touch ID on Apple IOS Devices.

Filed Under: iVend Retail, Product update Tagged With: iVend Cloud, iVend POS, POS, POS 6.4, Product Update

Engage Digitally with Customers

February 11, 2015 by Pankaj Mathur Leave a Comment

citixsys Engage Digitally with customer

Imagine retail customers no longer fumbling at a billing queue to drag out a crushed (or even half-torn) discount coupon, or a sale notice. Instead, visualize the same customers handing their iPhone or Android smartphones over to the store clerk to scan their new Digital Pass! That is no longer a sci-fi element, because the technology is here and now.

Now, a retail customer can be informed of a new location of his favorite store, the offers available, special events and sale timings. And to avail a sale voucher, the customer only needs to show the Pass at the billing counter, where the store clerk can scan the bar-code and process the offer. Technology has made the entire transaction, the whole process in fact, that much simpler, personal, engaging and efficient!

With this advancement, people can save information of their favorite offers or special sales, or get digital discount Passes on their phones . Passes and Passbook are, arguably, the next step in evolution of customer outreach.

Additionally, there is an option for retailers to send an image of the pass that the customers are receiving. The latter can get them via email, SMS, MMS, the web, social media, an app, and as QR codes (using the built-in Passbook scanning app).

Historically, Apple first introduced the concept of Digital Passes in 2012. Passbook is an application in iOS that allows users to store coupons, boarding passes, event tickets, store cards as well as financial information.

How Passes Work?

The Passbook displays Aztec, PDF417 and QR 2D barcodes, which can be triggered by location, localization, and the time of pass (validity). Being a Digital Pass, up to 10 locations can be added to each Pass, as in once a customer stores a Pass in his iPhone/Android Passbook, a location is programmed via GPS coordinates and/or iBeacon UUID. And another advantage of being digital is that up to 35 languages can be stored per Pass.

The 2D barcode in Passes can easily be recognized by a terminal POS barcode scanner, thereby removing the need to issue (and lug around) traditional passes. Going local to woo customers was never so easy!

Changes/modifications in the Pass can be pushed via the Apple Push Notification Service by the pass provider, or manually updated by the user themselves.

Geo-fencing feature in iVend Passes

iVend Passes utilizes the geo-fencing feature to specify different retail store locations. They can specify different stores coordinates while designing the template of the digital passes (it can be a gift card, coupon, or a loyalty card). The tagging of stores on the Digital Passes ensures a notification is received on the customer’s locked phone as soon as he reaches the vicinity of stores tagged in the digital Pass.

Besides the ‘valid-until’ dates of coupons, points and currency balance in Loyalty and Gift Cards are some more notifications that a customer can receive on his/ her phone.

So, what does the customer get out of this? He/she doesn’t have to check the validity on the Passes anymore. The Passbook feature automatically remind the phone owner when the due-date is near. When the customer is near a store, the relevant Pass will automatically put itself on the notification panel. So, the customer actually gets to enjoy the many benefits extended by the retailer.

The edge in going Digital

The information given above outlines what the customer gets out of iVend Passes. And in usual cases, the retailer is content with making it easier to reach out to the customer. But with Passes, there is a whole host of information that can be gleaned out of this avenue.

For one, the retailer gets comprehensive dashboards. A density map allows the analysis of the highest concentrations of Passes and where they are/have being used. That also gives the retailer an idea of where is the highest concentration of his customers. Plus, the iVend Dashboards can be configured to see the Usage Ratios. The management can see graphic evaluations to measure their Return on Investment (ROI). The retailer can see who has viewed their enterprise’s Passes, who has opened, redeemed or deleted their Passes. And this is all possible in real-time.

Integration Woes- No More!

So now, many retailers have installed third-party loyalty and Passes applications on top of their legacy software systems. In some cases, the sales till gets a new machine, adding to the clutter. And even then, there is no guarantee that the separate software can ‘talk’ to each other, easing hassles for the store employees and customers alike.

With the iVend Enterprise Retail Suite, a retailer can go beyond installation and integration issues. The Passes application is one of the complementary application in the software suite, and provides unmatched performance, safety, utility and data for the retailer.

iVend Passes is a platform for retailers to deploy Digital Passes on Apple Passbook, and Android devices as well. This gives retailers a cost-effective, long-lasting solution to engage customers with a digital Loyalty Card, digital Coupon or a digital Gift Card. It is a cloud-based application integrates seamlessly with iVend Enterprise Retail Suite to empower retailers to use the service at their point of sales, whether they be terminal or

Then, with iVend Retail, it becomes as easy as anything to design Passes, using the template designer to layout the design for a gift card, coupon or a loyalty card. The Email Designer enables the sending of customized email messages, along with your Passes.

And of course, customers would prefer the ‘greener’ version of retailer rewards, wouldn’t they?

Filed Under: Retail Trends Tagged With: Coupon, Customers, Digital, Engage Digitally, iVend Passes

CitiXsys January Newsletter 2015

February 2, 2015 by CitiXsys Communication Leave a Comment

The Cloud Advantage for Retailers

The Cloud as the Next Step at NRF 2015

At the National Retail Federation’s Big Show-2015, CitiXsys Technologies came out in force to showcase the power of Cloud Applications in the modern world of retailing. Kamal Karmakar, CEO, CitiXsys Technologies, talks about what trends are going to dominate the upcoming year, and his insights.

CitiXsys Partner ICS Sharpens iVend Product Skills with Training

CitiXsys conducted a five-day, intensive training session on improving CitiXsys iVend Retail product knowledge for approximately 13 staff members of Integrated Computer Systems, Inc. (ICS). ICS is one of the Philippines’ leading IT solutions providers, with over 35 years of experience in providing technological expertise including nationwide sales and services.

CaseStudy

Beyond CaseStudy

Magazine

Retail Insights

Video

NRF Video Podcast

Product Brochures

Upcoming Events

Recent Partnerships

Triphen Technologies Inc – United States

Triphen Technologies Inc, specializes in technology solutions for the retail industry. Combining iVend Retail Management suite of solutions with hardware and the know-how helps their retail clients with the data and control needed to succeed in today’s fast paced economy. Their solutions are centered around carefully-chosen Point-of-Sale solutions, with additional tools to assist with business communication and marketing efforts.

Apzon Telecommunication Solution JSC – Vietnam

APZON is an IT service provider and has 10 years of experience in providing IT solutions, as well as consulting services for clients in many sectors: telecommunications, retail, distribution, production, construction, manufacturing and service units of the state. As one of the first strategic partners of SAP AG in Vietnam – the leading ERP provider – APZON has been on a mission to empower its customers with optimal solutions and efficiency in management of business operations.

Recent Customer Wins

Game Day Detroit

Game Day Detroit, formerly known as The Hook Up, is home to officially licensed sports apparel for MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL and select NCAA sports teams, as well as on-field apparel. The store carries both replica and authentic jerseys, in addition to photos, frames, sports figurines, autograph items and much more. The solution was implemented by our partner Support One, Inc. at their thirteen stores, Game Day is currently using iVend to power their sales. Beyond this, Game Day Detroit also took on the same number of iVend Store servers, over MCs and a HO console to get the winning edge during game days and beyond.

Attard Bros. Group

Operating since 1977, Attard Bros Group is today composed of six units which range from construction, finishing, joinery, construction materials, hard landscaping and full-scale developments. Their clients range from Toyota, KPMG, Vodafone, Hilton, Playmobile, HSBC, Hard Rock Café and Pizza Hut, among others. The Group has taken the advantage of iVend POS at four of their stores and the Head Office to streamline their business prowess, with assistance from CitiXsys’ partner Philip Toledo Ltd.

Filed Under: News @ CitiXsys Tagged With: CitiXsys, CitiXsys Jan Newsletter, iVend Retail Management Suite, Newsletter

CitiXsys Partner ICS Sharpens iVend Product Skills with Training

January 16, 2015 by David Webb Leave a Comment

ICS was founded in 1978 as the country distributor of Radio Shack. Over the last 35 years, the company has experienced significant growth, added several verticals to its product offering and garnered numerous awards attesting to its success and dedication to its clients. For example, ICS received the Dell Most Valuable Enterprise Partner Award in 2013, and was the Cisco Select Partner of the Year (also 2013).

The objective of the advanced classroom training program was to help the candidates gain in-depth knowledge about iVend Retail solutions, including Terminal POS, Mobile POS, Loyalty and Passes. The training was conducted at the ICS Philippines headquarters by David Webb, who is the Director of Partner Enablement and Client Connect at CitiXsys Technologies.

During the training program, the candidates learnt module implementation, configuration and overall use of the software. The ‘students’ also learnt valuable product enablement processes and methodologies including best practice techniques. Through these intensive classroom sessions, the ICS team has increased their skills, which all acknowledge will ultimately lead to realisation of greater benefit to the end-customers, helping them streamline their businesses for greater productivity and profitability.

It is of particular note that all of the participating candidates achieved certification in Implementation of CitiXsys iVend Retail solutions at the conclusion of the 5 day training program.

Talking about the product learning session, David Webb expressed, “It was a real pleasure running the training in our solutions for the team at ICS. It was great to experience their enthusiastic interest in every topic and see such dedication in participation to all aspects of the training activities. The high level of professionalism shown by the ICS staff is something they can be proud of, and worthy of recognition.”

This classroom session with ICS is one of several that CitiXsys is planning for the Middle East, USA, South East Asia and Australia in this coming year. It has been uplifting to see that several valued partners of CitiXsys have already signed up for these training sessions.

In the end, (as the ICS candidates experienced!) what emerges is a smarter, sharper CitiXsys product expert.

Filed Under: Retail Blogs Tagged With: CitiXsys, iVend Loyalty, iVend Passes, Mobile POS, Partner, Training

Elevating efficiency through technology

January 15, 2015 by Bhawna Mehan Leave a Comment

COMPANY : PT Mitra Buana Elok

Country: Jakarta, Indonesia

Industry : Beauty and Make-Up

Started in 2014, PT Mitra Buana Elok, the main distributor of Beyond Beauty products in Jakarta, is one of the newest entrants in beauty business in Jakarta, Indonesia. The company sells cosmetics with the Beyond brand name (originally from South Korea) and provides one of the largest ranges of makeup and skin care in Indonesia. PT Mitra Buana Elok, or also known as MBE, was established in February, 2014, and they are the biggest distributors of Beyond Beauty. Sheila Lesmana of PT Mitra Buana Elok, says that, “The founder Mr. Yanto also has other companies in other ventures (textile manufacturing, agriculture, etc).”

Currently, the retailer has seven stores in various areas (such as Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, etc); and next year, they plan to open another 10 branches.

Challenges

The company spokesperson Sheila said that they needed an effective solution to their business needs. It was important that all stock and sales data across all stores was noted accurately to enable them to coordinate efficiently. Another issue that the company was facing was getting reports. The retail suite should have the capability to generate meaningful reports and offer analytics for the management.

Solution

iVend Retail, iVend Loyalty with SAP Business One

Benefits :

Reliable functionality and easy to use interface
Integrated Data Management
Faster decision making process
On-time data and report availability
Better understanding of customer buying preferences
Improved analysis and control
Efficient accounting & finance
Help stay connected with customers via iVend Passes
Integrated Loyalty for reward management

“Business is growing, and iVend Retail with SAP is a good decision for furthering expansion. iVend Retail seamlessly integrates with SAP Business One, hence is a natural choice for PT Mitra Buana Elok. Overall, we are satisfied with the efficiency of iVend Retail Application.”

Sheila Lesmana, PT Mitra Buana Elok

Filed Under: Customer reference Tagged With: Case Study, Elevating efficiency, Technology

When Cloud technology clears the path

January 12, 2015 by Manish Chaturvedi Leave a Comment

In this year’s first issue of CitiXsys Retail Insights 2015, we’ve taken up why the Cloud is the way to go for retailers. Especially for large-scale enterprise retailers, cloud-based applications may as well be the only solution which would enable them to be as flexible, adaptable and infrastructure-minimalist as they aspire to be.

The cover story outlines why and how cloud applications can help retailers to cut down IT infrastructure flab. Also, it talks about the advantages of integration of every operation and process of an enterprise retail into a single, consolidated suite. And finally, the main value of Cloud in Retail: Mobile POS.

Taking the Mobile POS angle further, another article speaks further on how smartphones, tablets and iPads equipped Cloud-connected retail applications can empower store assistants and traditional POS to a whole new level of performance.

We also take a look at how a retail store might function when it is powered by a Cloud-based Retail Suite and Mobile POS. it would turn normal retail operations on its head, increasing efficiency and decreasing investment by several factors.

This issue takes a whole new look at how retail operations would change, when integrated with new technology, especially Cloud Applications.

The CitiXsys Team wishes our readers a fruitful and fulfilling year ahead.

Filed Under: iVend Cloud Tagged With: CitiXsys, iVend Cloud, Magazine, Retail, Retail Insights